Senior event at Staten Island school ends with students sent home

Advance file photoThe principal of Moore Catholic High School sent seniors home today after some students allegedly showed up drunk.

An event meant to celebrate the end of their four years at Staten Island's Moore Catholic High School ended with the entire senior class kicked out of the building this morning after a handful of students allegedly showed up drunk.

Multiple sources said the school's planned end-of-classes celebration, during which seniors sign each other's white polo shirts with colorful markers, ended with all the seniors gathered in the school gym where Principal Douglas McManus kicked them out after he noticed several of the students had been drinking.

As part of a senior prank, some students arrived at the school before dawn and scrawled "Seniors '09" in colorful sidewalk chalk on a cinder block wall lining the Graniteville school's athletic field on Merrill Avenue, sources said.

After their dismissal, the seniors gathered outside, where they decorated each others's cars and then dispersed to enjoy an unexpected half day.

One parent, though, questioned McManus's decision to kick the kids out without calling their parents to pick them up.

McManus has returned the Advance's request for comment first placed at 10 a.m.

"Why wouldn't you just take the troublemakers out," asked Fred Librera, whose step-daughter is a senior at the school. "If something happens to any of those girls, he's responsible."